She shook her head. “Nothing. Go on with your story.”
“Let’s stop for a bite first,” I suggested when I spotted a sign for a diner ahead. “I’m hungry again and I haven’t seen you eat all morning, so you must be starving.
“I didn’t notice till now but you’re right,” Lia smiled, giving the back of my hand a little kiss before letting it rest in her lap. When I looked over at her, she was gazing out at the window, oblivious to the smile she just put on my face. It was funny to me. The smallest things she did could turn my mood entirely around and she had no idea. It was just a passing moment to her but to me, it brought me another step closer to that unfamiliar feeling of complete warmth and comfort. I’d never felt it with a woman before, but I had a feeling I knew what it was. Of course I wasn’t ready to admit that I might be falling.
So returning my eyes to the road, I chose to keep it to myself.
23
LIA
The diner we stopped at was old but charming with its red booths and vintage Coca Cola signs. I was charmed even before meeting the world’s most delightfully stereotypical diner waitress. The nametag on her turquoise uniform read “Dot,” she looked in her sixties or so and she wore thick glasses that she had moved up and down her face while checking out Lukas.
“You hold onto that one, doll – and be sure to use both hands, ‘cause he’s big!” she’d said before leading us to our booth in the back.
When I took a seat, I was pleasantly surprised when Lukas slid in next to me instead of across. My heart skipped another beat when he casually took my legs and laid them over his lap before scanning the menu. Spotting us from behind the counter, Dot looked at me, smiled and patted her heart. I wasn’t exactly sure what she was saying, but I felt the same way.
After ordering, I watched as Lukas took a minute to call and check in on Tess. When she didn’t pick up, he left a voicemail.
“Hey. Just wanted to see how you were doing and what you’re up to. Grandma sent me a picture of you guys at the beach yesterday. Looked like you guys had a good time. Call me back whenever. If I don’t pick up, it’s because I’m with Lia, but leave a message and let me know how your day was. I’ll talk to you later.”
My eyebrows stayed raised even after he hung up. “Tess knows we’re – ” I paused for half a second. “Hanging out?”
“Yes. She wasn’t pleased with me at first, but now that she knows that you’re not a one-night stand, she’s relaxed a little.”
I smiled. “Do you know when she’s coming back? I miss her, actually.”
“Me too. But I’m not sure when she’s coming back. She usually stays away for at least a week after.”
I nodded slowly, realizing he meant a week after the anniversary. I was quiet for a moment before I dared to ask, “Is it today?”
Lukas gazed down at my legs in his lap. “Yeah. His birthday.”
I couldn’t hold in my confusion anymore. “What happened?” I asked softly, studying Lukas. He kept his eyes down at his hands on my knees and for once, I felt a vulnerability coming off of him. He looked as strong as he ever did with a white T-shirt pulled tight over his broad shoulders, the sleeves stretched around his biceps. But his eyes had drifted elsewhere and there was a different kind of frown in his brow. I could see him trying to figure out how to start, his lips parted but saying nothing.
“I originally thought I was going to go to college in Miami,” he finally said. “I didn’t trust my parents to raise Wyatt properly. If they weren’t fighting each other, they were fighting him. My dad loved to tell him he was an accident. That he never wanted another kid and definitely not a – ” His lip curled as he swallowed. “Definitely not a ‘sissy’ for a son. He’d get called to school about the bullies harassing Wyatt and he wouldn’t go. He’d never meet the teachers or other parents. He was pissed that he was sixty years old and dealing with this and every day, he took it out on Wyatt. And Wyatt would just take it because he was the quietest kid. If he was happy, he was quiet. If he was angry, sad or upset, he’d be quiet. It was like he was always being careful not to bother anybody. He was like that even as a baby and a toddler. He was always looking around quietly, just studying everyone and making sure no one was angry.”
“Jesus. Poor thing,” I whispered as I pictured him. I could only imagine that being so fearful of others’ feelings was a result of growing up on eggshells and it broke my heart in two. “I’m glad he at least had you and Tess.”
“He did, but I had to go away to college at some point. I thought I’d stay near to take care of him and Tess, but when I got into Wharton, everything changed. I’d dreamt of going there since I was eleven. It was my reach school, but I got accepted and I was so fucking happy. But I also felt like a piece of shit because that meant I had to move far way. And even though she’d say she couldn’t wait and she’d visit me all the time, I knew Tess cried about it every night.”
“She didn’t want you to go?”
“She did. She knew it would give me opportunities I wouldn’t get anywhere else
, but she was afraid of taking care of Wyatt alone. He was six, she was only fourteen and our parents were getting worse by the day, it felt like. They refused to take Wyatt to the doctor when he was hurt. They refused to buy him new clothes.”
I buried my face in my hand. “God. You didn’t have relatives nearby to help?”
“None. But when our parents fought particularly hard, we’d bring Wyatt to Noelle’s house next door.”
“Noelle. The girl who was at your door when I first met you.” I raised my eyebrows. “And the one who works for you.”
“Worked for me, but yes. She grew up with us. When I went away to college, her mom was nice enough to let Tess and Wyatt hang out to avoid my parents but there were times she couldn’t because she had a life of her own, of course. She was divorced and she brought a lot of different men back to her house and the second I heard that one of them hit on Tess, I told her not to go there anymore.”
I shuddered. “You were at Wharton by that time?”
“Yeah. I’d met Cam and Emmett already. We lived in the same townhouse near campus, but I wound up moving out when I was twenty because I sued for custody of Tess and Wyatt. And since my parents didn’t put up a fight, I won.”